Rio Medalist McKenna Geer Highlights Six-Person U.S. Para Shooting Team

McKenna Dahl competes in Para Shooting. Photo courtesy of the Hanger Clinic. 

Going into a recent Para shooting world cup in Lima, Peru, U.S. shooters hoped to earn one more quota for this summer’s Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
Instead, Kevin Nguyen and Jaz Almlie-Ryan each earned one, while teammate YanXiao Gong came home with three individual medals. Now all three are among the six athletes named to the U.S. Paralympic shooting team on Friday.

“Everyone is on top of their game and prepared mentally and physically, and we’re well-rounded and well prepared to shoot for excellence in Tokyo,” said Don Stith, USA Shooting’s national Paralympic manager, in a statement.

The others named to Team USA are McKenna Geer, John Joss, Kevin Nguyen and Taylor Farmer.
Geer, of Arlington, Washington, became the first U.S. woman to medal in shooting at the Paralympics when she took bronze in the R5 mixed 10-meter air rifle prone SH2 event in Rio. Only four other Americans had medaled before her. Geer, who trains at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center, also works at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum, both in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

She is one of three returning Paralympians on the U.S. team, along with Almlie-Ryan and Joss.
A native of Katy, Texas, Almlie-Ryan earned rifle quota spots for Team USA in both 2016 and 2020 and has been on the national team since 2013.

Joss, a member of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program, is the national record holder in the R6 mixed 50-meter free rifle prone SH1, the event he’ll compete in Tokyo. The native of Corsicana, Texas, earned a Paralympic quota spot for Team USA as well.
Fellow rifle shooter Farmer, of Castilla, Ohio, has been on the national team since 2018 and earned the U.S. a Paralympic quota spot when she finished second at the 2019 world championships.
Nguyen also has an Army background, having enlisted in 2011 and deployed to Afghanistan one year later. However, he was injured by an improvised explosive device three months later, and eventually joined the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit and became a competitive rifle shooter. Like Joss, the Westminster, California, native is a member of the Army WCAP.

Rounding out the team is Xiao, a pistol shooter. At the 2019 world championships the native of Malibu, California, reached the final to earn Team USA a Paralympic quota spot.
“I think we have really nice diversity on the team with rifle and pistol athletes, members of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, World Class Athletes Program, a returning bronze Paralympic medalist, and a mix of young and more seasoned athletes,” Stith said.